It’s intriguing to me how, through this project, I’ve noticed that the personality and stage of life of each guest blogger is reflected in their homes and art. Take for instance my sweet friend Shannon Harrison.  Since I’ve met her in person I can tell you what a laid-back, down-to-earth girls she is while being an extremely devoted mom of little people.  I love that she is planning into the future by recording lasting memories for her posterity.  I love that those memories are in among the other well-loved, well-read books.  I love that her kids have access to her art and can feel an ownership in it.  Take a look…

Well my dear friend Wendy, I have to say I’m pretty stoked you asked me to share how I display my personal photos throughout our crazy little home! Ive surrounded by some pretty excellent company here on your fantastic blog! Dare I say my entry here may just be the most imperfect and random way of placement of photographic art in a home? Truth be told, so many times I have gone to purchase a huge gallery wrap of each of my children but the reality is for me, its just too hard to make that selection and spend that money when they’re each changing so fast. Besides, I just know I’ll have a new favorite image next week. Our house isn’t of the formal kind these days so our displays kinda reflect that. Heck, let get real; it looks like a run a 24 hour preschool over here. You may or may not notice little fingerprints or smudges on mirrors as you tour, just please pretend you don’t for my sake…

My husband and I have both said, if God forbid there was ever a disaster in our home, we would grab the children, my hard drives and our Blurb family albums. Since 2009, at the end of every year I have collected what are my favorites from the year and told the story of our last 12 months through a Blurb book. I usually include some thoughts about the year and a sort of a mushy love note from me to them in the front. I am still working on 2011, but here’s a little peek at 2010. If you haven’t tried Blurb, I highly recommend them. Their customer service is awesome and the quality of their press printed books is super. Either way, I highly suggest starting an annual book for your family, if not for yourself. I have made copies for each of my kids too so they can share the visual journey of our crazy little family with their own kids when they’re all grown..

The “gallery” that probably changes most often is the doors of our kitchen fridge. Its usually peppered with our weekly schedule, school work, coupons and reminders and random shots from our Fuji Instax. Recently I ordered some really fun Instagram magnets from a company called Stickygram. It took all of one minute to log into my Instagram account from their site and select which ones I wanted. They were at my mailbox in less than a week! If you have some favorites sitting in your Instagram account, this is a fun way to print and display them and my kids love playing with them. I’m trying to complete an Instagram 366 this year so I’m sure Ill have many more as months roll on!

Another one of our interchangeable “galleries” in our kitchen is this little memento/blackboard I made last year. The decal is from the awesomely talented illustrator, Shanna Murray and the frameless blackboard is from Billy Boards. My kids play with my Fuji Instax most and this is where I display their random little photos with washi tape. They LOVE that camera and they love it even more when we tape up their photos!

Here is our eclectic little fireplace mantle. These photos change out quite frequently here too. We’re in this room the most so I usually have my current favorites of our kids framed here.

This is my office or what I like to call “the desk at the top of the stairs where i can see everything“. Even after 5 years, Ive never really been able to decide what I want to hang above that desk so I ended up randomly propping stuff up against it. (Perfect for the lazy lady, no hammer or nails needed.) I printed up this little 20×30 calendar template from Paislee Press this year instead of opting for my regular monthly flip gig. I love it because it gives the look of a big organized gallery without too much thought. I printed this through WHCC using their 2mm Styrene so it could prop up easily without a frame.

I also recently framed this group of photobooth strips our family took on a recent trip to Santa Monica Pier. I am a sucker for a good old fashioned photobooth! The new ones just don’t cut it in my opinion; I like the faded old nostalgic 70s look.

This funky little gallery runs along our staircase and entry way. I usually change up the photos in here about every 6 months. Some of the good ol’ favorites stay and some frames I change out more than others. I’m not going to lie, this was the biggest pain in the BUTT to create- I was spray painting and hanging for over a week. That being said, there is not a day that goes by that I’m not elated I hung all these. About 2 years ago, I ended up scrounging together all my ugly old mismatched frames that had no place in our home and spray painted them either a matte black or matte eggshell. I added art mattes to some from Aaron Brothers and left some without. I might clean it up someday but I kinda like the randomness of it for now. Oh, and that little print smack in the middle is from Studio Mela, one of my favorite print shops on Etsy. I just felt overwhelmingly that “Let Love In” was just kind of a perfect theme for this gallery.

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